Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru
Bengaluru, Jun 2: In a breakthrough, sleuths of a Special Investigating Team (SIT) probing the murder of Kannada scholar M M Kalburgi have identified his killers. The two suspects, both aged 27, are each linked with the murder of Gauri Lankesh in Bengaluru in 2017, and protests against the screening of the film Padmavat in Belagavi in January 2018.
M M Kalburgi was shot dead at his home by unidentified men in 2015 at his home in Dharwad. Gauri Lankesh too was shot in a similar manner in September 2017 outside her home in Bengaluru.
According to a report by The Indian Express, Praveen Prakash Chatur alias Masalawala (27) had been arrested in April by the Belagavi police for an attack on a theatre allegedly orchestrated by right wing group Sanatan Sanstha. On Friday May 31, the SIT probing Kalburgi case took Prakash into custody after establishing his link with the murder. However, he is not directly involved in the Gauri Lankesh murder case.
The other person identified as Kalburgi's killer is Ganesh Miskin, who the SIT investigating Gauri Lankesh's murder had named in its chargesheet in November last year. The investigators had identified Ganesh as one the one who rode the bike carrying shooter Parashuram Waghmore to Lankesh's residence.
The Karnataka CID had arrested Ganesh after his links with Kalburgi case had come to light last year.
On May 28, the SIT arrested Amol Kale, a key accused in the Lankesh murder case, for his involvement in the Kalburgi murder.
So far, the police have arrested five persons for Kalburgi's murder.
In an official statement Saturday June 1, the SIT said Chatur had been produced before a court in Dharwad, adding that he has been taken into custody till June 7 for further investigations.
The Indian Express reported that according to police sources, Chatur and Miskin rode up to Kalburgi’s residence on the morning of August 30, 2015, with Chatur driving the motorcycle and Miskin opening fire. Witnesses reportedly testified to seeing the duo on the day of the murder and during the planning phase, the report said.
"The murder in Dharwad was a small operation comprising a small group. Unlike the Gauri Lankesh case which was planned very meticulously, many mistakes were made in the Dharwad case, which led to the identification of the suspects," the report quoted sources.
Investigators probing Lankesh murder reportedly discovered that Prakash Chatur had attended three arms and explosives training camps in Maharashtra and Karnataka in 2014-2015, allegedly organised by the Sanatan Sanstha. One of the trainers of this camp, identified as Suresh Nair, was later arrested for his alleged links with a series of blasts from 2006 to 2008.
The police came across links between the attack on the theatre in Belagavi and Lankesh murder case after two persons, identified as Sharad Kalaskar and Sudhanva Gondhalekar, arrested for Lankesh murder, told the investigators that they had carried out attacks on theaters screening the Padmavat movie on the orders of Amol Kale.